Thursday 4:45 pm

My outlook is much brighter today. Rather than playing with the kids like the super kid loving volunteers who have boundless energy and patience, I find my balance is maintained only when I behave like the every-day teachers at By Grace. So I go to my classes, teach, and read in the teacher's lounge during my breaks. We laugh a lot, and ask questions about each other's countries. Today they decided that one teacher, Isaac, would be my twin if he were white. I agree. I personally think its the nose.



My science class was somewhat encouraging today. They have already learned everything in their science textbook, so my instructions were to just teach it again, because they didn't have any more materials to give me. It is very difficult to find a way to get the children to think critically (or independently... mostly they just copy what I say down as the answer to a question, even if it doesn't pertain to the question at all). Example: yesterday I divided them up into 4 teams and asked them to come up with team names. Each one said "Team." or "Team Name." Eventually I got through to them and we had teams: "Mountain," "Lion," "Lenses," and "Golden Color." Awesome!

So last night I went home thinking I COULD get them to think creatively. I went online and googled science curricula for grade schoolers. Not much available, but I did stumble upon a publication regarding national evaluation of British Columbia science students. It talked about what science WAS (observation, questioning, hypothesizing, measurement, reporting). I created exercises for each of these 5 things. I wasn't sure how far we'd get today, but I got a worksheet together and we practiced observing. I gave everyone a sheet of toilet paper (which I carry around with me everywhere to blow my sad nose) and had them write down 4 things they observed based on sight, smell, touch and hearing. “Sounds like your feet moving through the grass” was my favorite. Oh these kids will go far!!!

Mary and I talked about chickens on the walk home. I saw chickens wandering around and asked if they belonged to someone. She said yes, they go to their homes at night. I described "chicken factories" to her, the ones where the chickens are hung upside down and decapitated. She pointed out chickens for sale on the way home, and I asked what would happen if I bought all 7 and let them go. She said people would take them. I disagreed. I said people would probably assume they belong to someone and leave them.

Then I asked what would happen if I went around with a chicken asking people "do you know whose chicken this is?" She said maybe the first person would laugh but the second person would say "Its mine." I gave her a few other ridiculous hypotheticals and we were cracking up by the time we got to my gate.